PETER KEOUGH

Latest Articles

Poetic justice Mija (Yun Jung-hee) is 60ish but still a looker, a quality she's aware of. She dresses elegantly even when she's going about her chores as a cleaning woman — which include bathing Mr. Kang (Kim Hi-ra), the elderly, paralyzed patriarch of the family who've hired her.

Blunt and Damon try to rise above ponderous mystifications Matt Damon doesn't shy from roles that address the questions that can really bother a guy - like identity (the Bourne movies), death (Hereafter), and now the meaning of it all.

Soppy farce is neither beautiful nor bestial The best part of this benighted version of Beauty and the Beast is the filigreed network of slashes, tattoos, and metalwork that class witch Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen as Gary Oldman in Dracula) inflicts on high-school pretty boy Kyle (Alex Pettyfer).

Less a boom than a whimper In the late '80s and early '90s, the subversive "New Queer Cinema," with such filmmakers as Todd Haynes, Gus Van Sant, and Greg Araki, promised a vital gay sensibility in independent film. Since then, Haynes and Van Sant have been absorbed by the mainstream, and gay cinema has deteriorated into inane, lurid rom-coms.

Like a not-so-funny episode from Grindhouse' cutting room floor If The Adjustment Bureau confused you about the grand plan of the man upstairs, don't expect John Milton (Nicolas Cage) in Patrick Lussier's 3D revenge flick to explain the ways of God to man.

Speech impediments? Given the change in political attitudes after the election of Barack Obama, a reactionary backlash following last year's progressive Oscars - in which Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director - might be no surprise. But who knew the Academy would get this fuddy-duddy?

Teen aliens and big battles make for a flashy, if predictable, adolescent fantasy You might feel you've watched the premieres of half a dozen TV series after seeing D.J. Caruso's flashy adolescent fantasy. Or maybe as many recent films. But despite its lack of originality, I Am Number Four does offer a few rewarding moments.

Casualty of war In the Bible, they beat swords into plowshares. On Martha's Vineyard on July 21, 2008, about two dozen Iraq War vets recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder shredded their old uniforms into paper and turned them into works of art. Sara Nesson, a filmmaker with local roots (she's the stepdaughter of tire magnate Barry Steinberg), had helped organize the event, which was called the Combat Papers Project.

Poorly scripted adventure is more rectum than Sanctum As the helicopter cleared the jungle canopy for the first awe-inspiring, 3D look at the stony maw of the Esa-ala cave system in New Guinea, I thought: sanctum? It's more like a rectum.

Inevitable movie allusions and a hideous flamingo don't do this animated flop any favors Following the blighted example of Gulliver, Kelly Asbury's vapid adaptation takes a great classic and makes it stupid for the kids.

Death becomes her Now 102 years old and still turning out movies at the rate of one a year, Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira seems destined to live forever. So perhaps it's appropriate that his newest film observes, with Olympian detachment, the tragi-comedy of mortals in pursuit of eternal love.

The quintessential skid row Manhattan's Bowery now showcases pricy condos and fancy restaurants, but back in 1956, when Lionel Rogosin made this newly restored, groundbreaking semi-documentary, it was still the quintessential skid row.

Tale of a sad-sack chick magnet The title narrator of Mordecai Richler's novel has the virtues of consistency and a compelling, comic voice — a TV producer with three blighted marriages and a murder rap behind him, he's a prick and proud of it.

Form vs. discontent "Your sincerity needs its own form," a film professor advises a student in prolific Korean director Hong Sangsoo's most recent work, OKI'S MOVIE. "Form will take you to the truth. Telling it like it is won't get you there."